A/N: Bumping this up to M. Read to find out why. Specifics will be at the bottom so as not to spoil.
PS: Sorry for the late update, I had my appendix taken out.
Campaign: Mad Science
Chapter 3: Grim Repose
Ashley, being the most eager to get a break, was the first to reach the safe room door. He opened it wide and glanced inside. It was devoid of life, both a boon and a curse, and had a few mattresses, pillows, blankets, and cardboard boxes filled with who knows what. The biker quickly stepped inside, removed his backpack, let it fall down, and quickly claimed the largest mattress for himself. He never bothered with a blanket, but he did seize a pillow for his head.
"Right. You guys have fun, I'm nappin'." Said the currently grumpy charger.
Parrot hopped off Matt's shoulder and walked into the room. She looked around a moment before she began to sniff the air. "Hey, what's that smell? Smells nice…"
Matt and Rags took a sniff in the air, and they both caught a whiff of it. The smoker didn't recognize it, but the hunter did. Together, they went on a search for the strange scent, looking behind boxes and behind mattresses. Eventually, the little witch found the source of the smell in the trash.
"Ewww! This's not nice at all!" She threw her findings on the floor, showing to the others that it was a bandage covered in dried blood.
"I knew it…" Matt said.
"Knew what?" Asked Rags as he took another puff.
"I smelled that same thing before, back with the survivors. My nose is better than you guys', so I smelled it off of them. They smelled like that, like that clot-"
"If there's survivors or whatever nearby, screw 'em! I'm tired." Ashley interrupted, rolling over on the bed, trying to ignore the rest of them.
"-Cloth. Sadly, the blood on that cloth smells a lot staler than the survivors did. It could have days since that was used. But, I guess this explains how everything knew where those guys were…"
"That… Is just plain unnerving. Might be part of the zombie package, but… finding living blood to smell nice? That's just downright creepy." Rags said, shuddering slightly.
Meanwhile, Parrot had picked up the cloth again, tongue sticking out in disgust, nose being pinched by her free hand, and finally deposited the offending cloth in the trash bin. Smacking her hands together to get the imaginary dust off, claws banging together as she did so, she found herself a nice pillow to sit on, and began to munch down on the sugar cubes she had in her coat pocket.
"I think we should just handle this calmly. We'll just wait here and… hopefully in time, we'll figure out more of this." The hunter said, trying to make sense of everything and keep the group together.
"Alright… for now, I guess… I guess I'll just be compliant. I just want some damn answers, and to find some peace." Rags said, letting a long sigh and taking a large drag from his smoke.
"Good. Hopefully we'll all get what we want," He turned to the little witch as she ate happily, "and it seems like one of us has already gotten what we want." He finished with a smile.
Rags looked at the girl and smiled to her as well. She always seemed to have a knack for bringing smiles to their faces, even in the darkest of times.
The hunter had begun rooting through the various boxes, seeing if there was anything useful. He found bits of dried and canned foods, a small amount of ammunition, mostly for pistols and a gun they didn't have. He horded what he could, so that they could share it after they slept, and then went on to continue his search for anything of use.
Ashley continued to lie on his side, tuning out the rest of them, and closed his eyes. He was tired, he knew it. His body was exhausted. By all means, he should be ready to fall asleep any second now, but he just couldn't seem to reach that last step between sleep and awareness. He began to ponder more and more on it, trying to figure out how to rest his new, mutated body. His answer cut off his thoughts as he dipped from consciousness and into a deep, dreamless sleep in the span of an instant.
The other soon followed him, Rags after finishing his smoke and barring the large steel door, Parrot after getting her fill of sugar and removing her raincoat, and Matt after locating some earplugs for his sensitive ears.
For the hours following, the safe room had become as silent as the dead.
Ashley was the first to wake up, if one can call it that. He took a glance outside through the bars in the door from where he laid down. It was nearing dawn when they first went in, and now it looked bright outside. He figured he'd been asleep for at least a couple of hours. Sighing, he sat up in bed and rubbed his head. To his surprise, he felt incredibly energized, as if the events that happened during the night hadn't even occurred. He gave himself a small smile and looked around to the others.
The others seemed to be fast asleep and dead to the world. He chuckled at just how accurate that statement might be.
Thinking he ought to get an early start, he made for his backpack and began to sift through its contents. Butcher knives a plenty, zip-ties, and a spare MP5. The gears in his head began to turn as he gave a small grin.
An hour later, the others were still asleep, unmoving, and under the notice of the biker as he worked. He had taken the four guns they'd been using most and made some modifications. To the guns that he, Matt, and Rags were using, he used all of the two-dozen zip-ties to attach a knife to each weapon. His pistol had one under the front and the other two had them attached underneath the stock.
After completing his work, he had started trying to fix Parrot's gun. While she got lucky with her shot, she broke her trigger in the process. Those claws of hers were definitely sharper than a razor and would most certainly get in the way of pulling triggers in the future. So, he had come up with a special solution. He bent the metal as necessary with the impressive strength of his right arm, even fusing the smaller bits together, and eventually found a way to make it work.
The biker had fixed a small bar of metal, courtesy of the bedsprings he pilfered form his mattress, to the trigger mechanism. Theoretically, all Parrot would have to do now is hold and aim with one hand, and pull the trigger bar with the other using her palm. He thought of how to give this a good testing and his eyes wandered the room. He looked around the room, then focused on Matt's little stash of ammo and food, and then to the little witch.
He smirked a little and stood as an idea popped into his mind. He walked over to the sleeping Parrot and began to shake her awake, "Hey, wake up." He said, hoping the others didn't notice.
The little girl stirred and mumbled a bit and then as suddenly as she had fallen unconscious, she was now fully awake. She blinked a bit and looked up to Ashley, "Oh! G'morning, Ashley!"
"Shh… Gotta be quiet, the others are sleeping." The biker said, bringing a large finger to his lips.
The little witch covered her mouth with both clawed hands and then looked to the other two sleeping figures. She mimicked Ashley's motion with a claw, "Shh…"
The charger nodded and smiled, "C'mon," he whispered, "I'm going to take you out for some target practice."
"Target practice?" She asked curiously, tilting her head.
"You'll see. Come on. Err… want up?" He asked her, holding out his large arm for her.
"Ooo! I haven't been up that high before!" She squealed quietly and was about to step onto Ashley's hand when she remembered something, "Oh! Can't forget my shoes and coat."
She grabbed her coat and quickly donned it along with her small shoes, "All ready." She stepped onto the biker's outstretched giant hand.
After placing her one his shoulder, Ashley went over to Matt's pile and picked out a clip of pistol ammo, "This'll do."
Humming happily, Parrot rode on the charger's shoulder, excited about what this target practice was going to entail. With her on his shoulder, the charger unbarred the door, the one opposite to the one they used last night, and walked outside to the new area. It was a bright and beautiful day, if you could ignore the zombies out and about and the wanton destruction of crashed cars and smoking buildings.
The biker walked a good two-hundred yards from the safe room and found a nice patch of zombies in a rural basketball court surrounded by a chain link fence. "Alright, rides over. Off with you." He said, chuckling lightly at the girl's protests as she was picked up and put down on the ground.
"Heeeey! I liked it up there!" Parrot whined aloud, pouting.
"Yeah, yeah. Well, we're here. Time for target practice." He said as he reached for the gun in his pocket that he modified for Parrot.
The little girl gasped lightly as all the pieces fell into place in her little mind, "You fixed my gun! And… oh…" She said oddly before reaching out and taking the instrument of death.
"Matt found some extra ammo, and while you got lucky with that Tank thing, there ain't a kid on earth that's a good shot."
"But… but… These guys aren't being mean to us like the other ones though!"
"I know. Which makes them perfect targets." She smiled a moment, and then frowned when he saw the little girl's pouting face. He sighed and spoke again, "Alright, look at it this way. Each and every one of those guys are a big ball of mean waiting to happen. They ignore us cause we're like them. But, if a normal, nice person goes near them, they'll attack. And watch this."
Making sure he had the little girl's attention, he walked over to one of the common infected; a man in a business suit leaning up against a wall, looking at the sky. He brought his hand to his mouth and coughed into it, "Excuse me, sir?"
The zombie didn't move or make a noise.
"See? No response. But…" He said as Parrot nodded. He then reached out and touched the zombie's shoulder, a pet peeve of these things, as he discovered with that fat zombie a while back. The zombie looked to him dumbly for a moment, and then snarled and began pounding on his chest with all its might.
While many zombies posed a problem for his tough skin, a single infected was pathetic before the large biker, "They seem to try and fight anything that touches them. No matter what, these guys are dangerous. Ya saw what they did to Matt that one time. We're special, these guys ain't. These ones have been dead for a long time now, and turned into mindless killing machines. At least, from what I've seen."
Fed up with the annoyance, Ashley proceeded to grab the zombie pounding him on the chest and hurled it across the street and into an alley. It landed behind a dumpster and was never seen again, "This thing is stronger than I thought…" He said as he looked to his right arm.
Parrot watched on in understanding. From her friend's demonstration, she found that the zombies were all mean, all the time. They were just waiting for a chance to be bad. If she didn't learn how to stop them now, they could end up hurting her or her friends. With a snap decision of child-like simplicity, she decided she would learn how to fight these things properly, even if they weren't being bad right this moment. She took the gun in hand, and asked, "How do I use it right?"
The biker smiled to the little girl, "That's the spirit. Alright, you hold it like this in your left hand, like me." He demonstrated by pulling out his own pistol with his small left hand, "Now, cause you got them claws, you have to hold it with mostly your palm and the non-claw parts of your fingers, like this." He said before holding the gun with his fingers straight out so the tips didn't touch the metal, only the parts below the finger and thumb tips.
The little witch girl fumbled with it a bit, but eventually managed to mimic Ashley's hold on the gun and sure enough, her claws weren't touching the gun. It felt awkward to hold, but she figured she'd get used to it, "Ok, what now?"
"Well, see that metal bar?" He waited until the girl looked and nodded before continuing, "Grab onto that with yer right palm and fingers, like you're doing with yer left hand." He waited again for Parrot to fulfil his instructions. He didn't have to wait long as she'd learned quickly with her other hand. Her claws just protruded, one up and four down, as she gripped the little bar, "Alright, now you just gotta point, brace yourself, and pull the handle towards you."
"Brace myself?"
"Yeah, you know when you shot last time, it had a lil' kick, right?"
"Un-huh, I remember. It scared me."
"Well, bracing yourself means holding on hard and getting ready for that kick."
"Oh, okay." She said before concentrating on her arms and hands, holding the gun tightly in preparation to shoot, "Okay, what next?"
"Now, you point, pull, and shoot. The two best places are the chest, and the head. Head's smaller, but softer. Chest is bigger, but it might not do as much damage. Now, uh…" He looked around a moment, and spotted a girl zombie leaning face first on the chain link fence, "Ah, that one over there," he said as he pointed, "that one's perfect. Remember what I said now."
Parrot gulped hard and nodded her head. She started walking towards the unsuspecting zombie, but Ashley called out to her when she was about twenty feet away, "Alright, that's close enough, gotta practice from some distance."
The little girl nodded and then looked to the zombie. She raised her large weapon, large compared to her, and pointed it at the infected… thing. It felt easier for her if she thought of them as things just waiting to hurt her, instead of what they used to be. She brought up her gun and pointed at her target.
"Look down the length of the gun with one eye, and line it up to where you want the bullet to go." Came the biker's instructions.
The witch gathered her strength, looked down the length of the gun, and aimed at the zombie. She pulled the custom trigger.
The gun fired off. Parrot barely felt the kickback this time, now that she was ready for it, and her witch strength helped too. The bullet soared forward and imbedded itself into the zombie's shoulder. No one but herself and Ashley seemed to have heard the gunshot, as everything around them remained still, save the infected that was now thrashing about.
"Not good enough, gotta hit the head or closer to the centre of the chest. Watch out now that it doesn't charge you."
After recovering from the little shock she had over the first shot, she noticed that the zombie was slowly turning its attention towards her. It let out a small snarl, ready to attack, but it was drowned out by a second shot that planted into the infected's neck, causing it to drop dead on the ground.
"Whoa…" Parrot stared on in awe of what she had just done. She killed a zombie, all by herself. She used a gun and didn't break it. A sense of accomplishment welled up inside of her, and swelled more after she realized how she felt. She felt useful. Before, she would always have to run and hide or break an annoying alarm. She could fight now, in however small a quantity, and could help protect her friends.
"Not bad. Two shots is good. Now let's see if you can nail one in one." The biker smiled to the girl, pleased with her work.
The little witch nodded and found another target. This time it had taken her three shots, due to its flailing about after the first glancing shot, and Ashley instructed her to aim more carefully. The third time she managed to catch a zombie in the head, downing it in one shot. She hopped up and down in excitement, and Ashley nodded in approval.
"Alright. You should have nine bullets left. Keep practicing on your aim until you run out, alright?"
Parrot nodded happily, a big smile on her face. She went back to the task of practicing her aim. Ashley was surprised at how well she could handle the kickback, but knew she had a long ways to go to get over her initial jumpiness when the gun fired, as well as noting that her aim needed work. The girl proceeded to down four more zombies between eight rounds, downing one in one, two in two, and one in three shots. She was progressing nicely until she got to the last zombie. She let loose her last bullet, hitting it square in the chest and causing it to flail about. However, she had forgotten to count her shots, and heard nothing but a click as she attempted to shoot the pissed off zombie.
"Uh oh… Ashleee! Help!" The little witch cried out in fright.
The charger just grunted and imposed himself between the zombie and his temporary student. With his big arm, he grabbed the infected before it stopped flailing and held it tight. He was going to simply crush it, but then an idea of his came to mind.
"Hey, Parrot. You know how me and the other guys have weapons to fight that aren't guns, right? Matt's got his nightstick, Rags his butcher's knife, and me my helicopter blade." He waiting until the girl nodded before continuing, "Well, you don't got one, and honestly, you don't need one."
"Huh? Why not? I only got enough gun to shoot… uh… two… four…" She said as she counted the bodies of the zombies she shot, "Six bad guys. What if I run out?"
"Look at your hands and wiggles your fingers." Ashley deadpanned.
She gave him a curious look, but did as she was told. She brought up her clawed hands and wiggled her fingers, and in her turn, her claws wiggled with them. A memory surfaced, from when she first met Matt and had threatened to scratch him, and she got what Ashley meant.
"Oh… My scratching, huh?" It didn't take her long to figure out that if she can cut aluminium pipes, she could easily dice up a squishy zombie. She didn't know how she felt about that.
"There you go. Yeah, you got them claws and I've seen what you can do with them. You wanna try using them on this one? I'll push 'im at you and you can chop him one."
The little witch looked reluctant at first, but she wanted to give it a try if it meant she could help fight more. She nodded to Ashley, who nodded back before pushing the infected her way.
He kept a close eye on things, just to make sure she was going to be alright. He regretted the fact that he was doing this, teaching a little kid how to shoot a gun and kill something, but he knew it had to happen. In this world that they were in now, if you didn't know how to defend yourself, you would die. He almost did when he was alone against the horde, which was the main reason he was currently following along with the others. He passed along what he knew to them so that they could not only defend themselves better, but defend him as well. Out of his three companions, he wanted to teach Parrot the most, even if he did regret it. She was young, thrust into a dangerous world and changed, possibly forever. If she didn't learn fast, she'd be the first to go if any of them did, and he didn't want that to happen.
Parrot was nervous. She didn't really know what to do. Didn't know how to strike. Didn't know which hand to use. She didn't know if it was better to stab, to slash, or a mix of both. With the infected having been pushed towards her, it began to stumble, and looked like it would fall before it stopped. A memory flashed in her mind for a moment, a memory of the crazy lady that looked like her that she accidentally made mad. She remembered the swipe it took as it was trying to claw them both to death. By the time her thoughts were finished, the infected was upon her. She gave a little shriek, one that no normal human being could make, and slashed forward, cutting the zombie from its collarbone to its hip. The infected fell dead, but not before leaving a few stains of blood on her raincoat, and covered her hand in the red fluid.
The little girl watched the zombie fall dead and then turned to look at her hand. Her left hand was as clean as it could be, but her right hand now had the blood of the thing she'd slain. It didn't feel right. It didn't look right. It didn't smell right. She felt a deep duress wash over her as she started at her natural weapon, she knew it wasn't right, she wish she hadn't done it. Her breathing began to quicken and tears formed in her eyes, she wanted it gone.
"Get it off!" She cried out, flailing her bloodied hand, sending flecks of the red essence on the ground. "Get it off get it off get it off!" She cried louder, her voice starting to wrack with sobs.
Ashley looked to the girl, slightly shocked, as she began to cry and flail her hand wildly. He hadn't expected her to react this way, especially after what he saw her do after Matt went down. Then he remembered how she passed out after her assault and it dawned on him that she might not have even remembered she did it. She never made mention of it, so it did make sense to him. He felt a surge of guilt as he saw tears rolling down the girl's cheeks, past her quivering lip that let looses noises no child could normally make.
"Here, it's alright, I'll get it off. Uh…" He looked around, and behind him, he saw one of the dead zombies that Parrot has shot. He reached over and tore off its shirt, revealing a relatively clean undershirt. He ripped the undershirt off with his right hand and turned to the crying witch, "Just stay still and let me wipe it off, okay?"
She didn't seem to want to listen to him, and continued to flail her arm and cry. Taking action to try to calm her down, he passed the cloth to his left hand and reached out with his right to grab her hand. The first thing he noticed after gently restraining her was that she was really strong, for a little girl anyway. While he could easily overpower the little girl, he felt quite a bit of resistance, though he couldn't accurately gauge how much in comparison to a normal person. After the fleeting thought passed, he started to clean the girl's hand, palm first, then claw by claw. With each wipe Parrot seemed to calm down, and by the end of it, she was merely sniffling lightly.
"Sorry about that…"
"I… I… I don' wanna do that again…" She sniffed out.
He picked her up and tried to give her an awkward hug. She hid her claws under the sleeves of her raincoat and then clung to Ashley's leather jacket. She could feel his chest rumble as he spoke, "Let's head back, alright? And let's keep this to ourselves and try to forget it happened."
Too sombre to really disagree, the little girl just nodded in agreement and sniffed some more.
The biker sighed. "Let's head back." He said again before picking up their guns and making his way back to the safe room.
He hoped the others weren't awake yet, and hoped that Parrot still had some sugar left. That always seemed to cheer her up. Having learned his lesson, he tried to forget the events of the last few hours, and tried to block out the shame he felt for what he did to the poor girl.
A/N: And here it is. A little later that I had hoped, but a scene I wanted to get out. I cut it a little shorter than it was going to be, but it gives me things to put in next chapter as a bridge between this and the campaign finale in chapter five. Tune in next time for: Mad Science Chapter 4: CEDA Centre.
Being bumped up to M due to descriptions of blood and minor gore, and for a child having and actively shooting a gun. Just in case, you know?